1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cellular phone. In particular, the invention relates to a cellular phone capable of browsing contents by using a full browser.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a cellular phone has been provided with, not only a communication function based on a simple call conversation, but also an address book function, a mail function via a network such as a base station and the Internet, a browser function with which web pages can be browsed, as well as multi media functions such as a music control function (music player function) with which audio data can be listened to and a function with which a terrestrial digital one-segment broadcast wave, a terrestrial digital radio broadcast wave, and an FM radio broadcast wave can be received.
In a case where the web pages, etc. are browsed by the cellular phone, by using a dedicated browser for the cellular phone, it is possible to browse a file described in a descriptive language developed for a mobile terminal (for example, WML (Wireless Markup Language) or HDML (Handheld Device Markup Language)). In recent years, higher functions of the cellular phone have been aimed. According to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-243829, in addition no the dedicated browser for the cellular phone, the cellular phone has been also provided with a general full browser for the personal computer with which a file described in a descriptive language for a personal computer (for example, HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) or XHTML (Extensible Hyper Text Markup Language)) can be browsed.
According to the technology proposed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-243829, it is possible to increase a usability of distribution for mobile terminals by representing a content for the personal computer in a different page structure.
In the personal computer used in a house or a business, in general, a broad band network capable of carrying out a high speed communication is used, and large volume data can be progressively communicated. Along with the spread of this broad band network, in order to realize a display of a beautiful image at a higher definition on the personal computer on the terminal side, the amount of data transmitted from a content, server becomes also larger. As a result, the data downloaded from the content server onto the personal computer by using the full browser is also larger.
However, in the case of the personal computer, a charge for the connection to the Internet is generally a flat-rate charge. On the contrary, in the case of the cellular phone, although depending on a service of carriers, the charge for the connection to the Internet is mainly a pay-as-you-go charge in accordance with the amount of communicated packets or a flat-rate charge which is more expensive than the charge for the usual mail of the cellular phone and the dedicated browser for the cellular phone. For that reason, the flat-rate charge is used in the case of the personal computer, and the usage fee is fixed irrespective of the total packet amount used by the full browser. Thus, the total packet amount used by the full browser is not so an important problem for the user. On the other hand, in the case of the cellular phone, the pay-as-you-go charge (or the flat-rate charge more expensive than the charge for the usual mail of the cellular phone and the dedicated browser for the cellular phone) is used, and the usage fee is charged in accordance with the total packet amount used by the full browser. Thus, the total packet amount used by the browser (full browser) becomes an important problem for the user, which directly links to the usage fee. For that reason, a check function of checking the total packet amount used by the full browser on a setting screen is mounted to the cellular phone.
At this time, in a case where data is browsed by using the full browser or the dedicated browser for the cellular phone in the cellular phone or a mail is transmitted or received, TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) is used as a communication protocol. In this TCP, in addition to a data part used by an application program of the highest application layer (for example, an application program related to the full browser), a header is added to the respective layers (the TCP layer/the IP layer/the data link layer, etc.). For that reason, in a case where the total data amount at the time of browsing the data by using the full browser is calculated, the total data amount takes different values depending on which protocol stack layer to be used to calculate the total data amount. Then, in general, a carrier calculates the total data amount on the basis of the data size of the IP layer, and the charge is calculated on the basis of the packet amount corresponding to the total data amount. For that reason, in a case where the total packet amount is calculated and the total packet amount is displayed in the cellular phone side, it is desirable to carry out the calculation by using, as a reference, the data size of the IP layer which the carrier uses for the charge calculation.
However, since the packet amount used for the communication of the application program other than the full browser such as the dedicated browser for the cellular phone or the mail software needs to be excluded from the packet amount used for the communication of the application program related to the full browser, the total packet amount is unwillingly calculated by the application program side in the related art. Thus, between the data size used for the charge calculation by the carrier due to the use of the full browser and the data size used for the charge calculation on the cellular phone due to the use of the full browser, some difference is generated. As a result, even though she total packet amount used by the full browser is the important problem for the user which directly links to the usage fee, it is difficult for the cellular phone side to precisely calculate the total packet amount used by the full browser, compared to the total packet amount calculated by the carrier.